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Vineyard School Officials Fail to Secure Bus Company Contract Due to Bid Error

Vineyard School Officials Fail to Secure Bus Company Contract Due to
Bid Error

By RACHEL KOVAC

With one week to go before the start of a new fiscal year, Island
school officials are still uncertain who will transport students to
school next fall. Interim Vineyard schools superintendent G. Paul Dulac
announced Monday that transportation bids opened last week had to be
rejected due to an error in the bidding process. Only two companies
submitted bids - MV Coachlines, which operated the buses this past
year, and Island Transport Inc., which abruptly severed its contract
with the schools in 2004.

Mr. Dulac made the announcement at the Up-Island School Committee
meeting in West Tisbury on Monday.

In March school committee members agreed to seek a one-year
transportation contract. After several months of writing, rewriting and
careful scrutiny by lawyers, a request for proposals (RFP) was issued
for bids from outside vendors and contractors. Responses were due June
17.

Amy Tierney, assistant to the superintendent for business affairs,
was told Monday at 5 p.m. by the office of the state inspector general
that transportation bids can only be offered to contractors as an
invitation to bid, not an RFP.

Under an invitation to bid the decision can only be made by a yes or
no vote, and state law requires the schools to accept the lowest
suitable bid. An RFP allows each section of the proposal to be judged
individually to determine which bid to accept.

Mr. Dulac said the problem should not pose a major setback. "I
do not think we will have a problem with time," he said.

Several up-Island school committee members expressed concern about
the bidding process and the fact that school attorneys did not
understand the distinction between an invitation to bid and an RFP.
"Are we going to incur any damages?" asked school committee
member Diane Wall. "Are we in any danger of not having buses to
transport children?"

Mr. Dulac reassured committee members. "It isn't like
we're starting from scratch. I do not think this is going to take
anywhere as long," he said.

School transportation has been an ongoing trouble spot for the past
several years. More than 1,500 public school students rely on the buses
for a ride to and from school. Just weeks before the 2004-2005 school
year opened, longtime Vineyard school bus operator Island Transport
exited its contract, leaving school officials in a scramble. Island
Transport president James Dario wrote a letter to school committee
members at the time, blaming the leadership for allegedly breaching
contract terms. The company claimed it wanted more autonomy to
discipline drivers and the authority to set school days. Island
Transport also accused school leadership of practices that created
safety concerns.

At the time relations with Island Transport were already been
strained. Last year the company threatened to strand students at the end
of a school day in June unless the schools agreed to pay the company
roughly $100,000 in unpaid bills that school bookkeepers had questioned.

Last summer, the Darios accused school administrators of destroying
the relationship. Former Vineyard schools superintendent Kriner Cash
called the bus company's actions "unprofessional and
irresponsible."

Shortly after the decision to exit the contract, the Darios turned
around and said the company wanted to honor the contract. School
officials were skeptical and Mr. Cash entered into talks with the
Vineyard Transit Authority. In the end the school system signed a 90-day
contract with VTA for bus maintenance and safety checks and hired MV
Coachlines of Winter Springs, Fla., to handle the labor force.

The Vineyard schools own the buses and have traditionally leased
them to Island Transport. The deal during the last four years set a fee
of $365,000 a year paid to the schools, which then contracted with
Island Transport for just over $1 million a year to operate the bus
system and cover the payroll for drivers. The cost of insurance, fuel
and maintenance was shared.